IT

Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

KDDI, Sony and existing investor Liberty Media helped the passwordless authentication system developer close its first round since 2017.

Carnegie Mellon University call centre analytics software spinout Voci Technologies is to be acquired after raising $17.9m of equity and debt financing.

Discovery Communications will exit the cybersecurity automation platform developer in a $145m cash-and-share deal following $29m in venture funding.

The potential acquisition would reportedly value the HPE, Microsoft and Koch-backed cloud software provider below its most recent valuation but above $250m.

The robotics AI technology developer pulled in $36m through a series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund that included fellow existing investor Qualcomm Ventures.

Terese Hougaard has taken a principal role at the UK-based venture firm after five years at Alphabet unit CapitalG, most recently as a partner.

Digital payment provider Stripe raised an extension to its series G round backed by Alphabet. The round is the latest in the payment tech space, which we have seen grow in the past decade.

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

Marketing analytics software provider Adstage had raised more than $15m from backers including Verizon, Digital Garage, HubSpot, Guidewire and Eloqua.

Guru has closed a $30m series C round backed by returning investor Slack, bringing the sales advice software developer’s total funding to $68m.